Five days from now, the calendar would show the date as
20th October. On that day, sixty-six years ago, something memorable
happened. However, only a few people witnessed that event, because it
happened so long ago, and that too in a small and somewhat unknown town
named Uravakonda in Anantapur District of what was then Madras Presidency
and is now Andhra Pradesh.

On that day, a young boy named Sathya Narayana Raju left home for school as
usual, went some distance, came back, stood on the doorstep of his brother’s
house and said something to His elder brother that knocked out both the
brother and his wife. The young boy just fourteen years old, declared that
He was Sathya, that He belonged to the entire human race, and that He was
going out to Love All as well as Serve All.

With those historic words, Raju disappeared into history and in place of
that young lad appeared Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the Avatar of the Age.
Baba then walked away from what was until then His residence, went to a
garden in the house of a person named Anjaneyulu, sat on a small stone and
gave the world His first Message:

Manasa Bhajare Guru Charanam…..

We all know that song and many of us also know about this turning point as
well but we are sure that of the fifteen thousand or so who now receive the
Sai Inspires picture post-card daily, there must be many of the younger
generation, who are not aware of all this.

The “body” of Bhagawan Baba was only fourteen years old, but being Timeless,
Baba gave then an Eternal Message. As He told Arjuna five thousand years
ago, God incarnates mainly to teach this Message to man. He has done so any
number of times but man being a dumb student keeps forgetting the lesson.
And so, God has to come down repeatedly to teach that same lesson, which is
that there is only One Reality, GOD!

Everything we see is God, though it might not be readily apparent to us.
However, if we pause to reflect and enquire, we would eventually find that
indeed, everything including us is nothing but God. Two years ago, on 25 th
October to be precise, Swami gave a Discourse on this subject, for the Nth
time that is, and we thought this Sunday, we would present excerpts of that
Divine Discourse with supplementary comments.

Let us start with the world we live in, which seems so very real to all of
us. That is no surprise because the world is enveloped by powerful forces
that bring us pleasure as well as pain. So we tend to think of this reality
as something EXTERNAL to us and often independent of us. When we look out
into the world we see all sorts of things – people serving others, people
injuring others, etc. etc. And when we see these things, we experience
various feelings like joy, pain, anger and so on. Such experience is not
confined to just what we see; they extend also to the actions we are
involved in. A man drinks alcohol thinking there is pleasure in the alcohol.
Alcohol is just a drink and a chemist would even given the formula for it.
The feeling of intoxication experienced is internal to the person concerned.
For example, if a person who does not like alcohol is forced to drink it, he
would not feel pleasure but revulsion. Swami describes it all as follows:

In God’s creation, everything is reaction, reflection and resound. All that
we experience in the outside world is only a reaction, reflection and
resound of the inner being.We are, however, deluded to think that this
reaction, reflection and resound is real. Whatever feeling comes out of your
heart and takes a shape outside is the form you see. It means that, that
form has already been conceived by you.

Let us explore what these words mean. Say there is a statue and two men
standing next to it, one a “normal” person of the world and other a holy
man. All three are witness to a riot happening in the neighbourhood. The
statue does not feel anything, naturally. In fact, you would say it is
stupid to expect the statue to feel anything because the statue is
insentient, and you would be absolutely right; but we brought in the statue
just to make our point. What about the other two? The normal person would
feel agitated and angry and would most likely be pro one of the two factions
engaged in the rioting; the side he supports would depend of course on his
personal feelings. As for the holy man, he does not take sides but is pained
that both parties are foolish in wasting their time and energy in violence
instead of spreading Love, which is the true nature of man. This
hypothetical example brings home the elementary truth that experience flows
from the nature of the person. The so-called normal person and the holy man
both witness the same event but their reactions are very different. Why?
Because their natures are very different; they see what they want to see!
That is the point about the above quote from Baba.

OK, the outside is a reflection of the inside. There are billions of people
on earth, and they all have different personalities. So, are there are
billions of versions of what people perceive and experience as reality? Baba
says NO! How come? That is what we shall consider next. You see, every
individual is a CORE plus an outer covering. It so happens that while the
CORE is the same in all, the outer covering varies widely, being dependent
on the individual’s “worldly personality”. You might say: “But that is
inevitable and what can we do about it?” Swami says that if you see the
world imagining yourself to be the “outer cover” you will see something,
while if you see the same world believing you are the CORE and not the outer
covering, then the perception would be entirely different. While the
“outside” of a human’s personality would see diversity, the CORE of his
personality would see only one thing, which is the Reality. Baba puts it
this way:

You are everything and everything in Creation is immanent in you.
Unfortunately, man today is forgetting his Real Nature and is imagining
something that does not exist. This is the result of delusion, which, in
fact, is of his own making. It is only when man comes out of this illusion
that he would be able to realise Brahman.

So, there is the answer – we see what we want to see! If we imagine
ourselves to be the transient body plus the Mind, then the IMPRESSIONS we
get of the world outside would be Bhrama or illusion [as opposed to Brahman
or the Eternal Reality]. If we are guided entirely by the fickle Mind, we
would see superficial diversity instead of the CORE Divinity. As Swami says:
Yad Bhavam, tad Bhavati – as you feel so you become. A person wedded to
diversity would tend to feel, “I am right and he is wrong etc.,” and from
that would be born, anger, jealousy, hatred and conflict. This is what is
happening all round these days, and that is why there is so much hatred and
conflict, though the CORE of all persons of all faiths, and indeed of even
the so-called atheists, is Divine! Swami says, “You stupid man! Why are you
wasting your time, energy and even money in focusing on the wrong thing! Why
don’t you focus instead on the REAL YOU! That REAL YOU is God, and once you
realize that you would see nothing but God everywhere. The moment you do
that, conflict would vanish from the face of the earth like the mist before
the morning Sun!” In short, our “outside” sees superficiality while our CORE
sees the CORE of the Universe; the latter would be a case of God “within”
seeing God “without”! That said we would now like to present some more
excerpts to stimulate your thinking.

There is only one power in the world, which is all-pervasive. That is the
power of Love. It is only by Love, that human societies are formed. There
can be no humanity without Divinity.

That is a clear message that we cannot hope to be humans if we forget our
innate Divine nature. That CORE is the Only Reality. The question arises:
“If our CORE is indeed Divine and Selfless Love is an integral part of each
of us, then how come there is so much hatred?” Baba explains. He says that
hatred is nothing but a highly degraded form of Love , the degradation
occurring due to attachment and desires. Swami adds:

Even Maya (delusion) is associated with love. You do not find anything in
this world, devoid of love. Love is in everything in this world. All
relationships between people in this world are established and cultivated on
account of love. Again, love becomes the cause for separation of two
individuals.

So it is not as if Love is absent in us; it is always present but
unfortunately, often in degraded or polluted form. If only we can clean it
up! Swami continues:

In fact, Love is your TRUE form. Man is born out of and brought up with
love. Not only a human being, but every living creature experiences love
right from its birth. There is no force more powerful than Selfless Love in
this world. No power on earth can change Selfless Love.

So, if we really want to be human, then we must lean upon our innate
Divinity – no other option! Once we truly become human, nothing can stop us.
As Swami emphasised in the Discourse referred to.

There is no power greater than humanness in this world.

Devoid of love, nothing can be achieved even in this mundane world. Without
love, the whole world becomes a vacuum. That love alone assumes a form.
Realise this truth.

Divinity is only One, which is changeless. That changeless Eternal Divinity
is immanent in you. All external forms and names are like fleeting dreams.
And those dreams are not real. Hence, strive to come out of that Bhrama .

All of you are Embodiments of Divinity. Your forms are Divine. You and God
are one. You are not different from God. Experience this Cosmic Unity. Unity
is Truth. Unity is Divinity. God is not separate from you. God is manifest
in you. Reality is not somewhere in a distant place. It is within you.

Your very nature is Reality. How can you realise this Truth? Only by
cultivating Pure, Selfless and Divine Love. Without Love, nothing can be
achieved in this world. Love is the source and sustenance for the entire
universe. Love is God and God is Love. Therefore, live in Love.

We have heard this many times, but do we ever spend a few moments to reflect
on what the words actually mean?

We thought that this week, as we approach a major anniversary in this Sai
Yuga if we might call it that, we would call attention to the Message that
the Avatar has been giving again and again, not just during this
Incarnation, but in every Incarnation in the past as well.

May God’s Grace shower on you ceaselessly. See you again next Sunday! Jai
Sai Ram.